The Prize, the Natural, the Sure Thing. That’s how Cooper Flagg has been described. Coachable too.
Brian Lewis went down to Tobacco Road in North Carolina this week to get a look at the man teams want so bad that they’ve set out to tank their whole season: Cooper Flagg, barely 18 years old and as close to a sure thing as there has been in a while.
“It looks like we’ve finally got a No. 1 pick who’s actually a real No. 1 pick,” a Western Conference scout familiar with the 6’9”, 205-pound Flagg told Lewis.
And as so many reporters have learned on visiting Duke, Flagg is more than his stats, impressive as they may be at 19.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists, as well as 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks. It’s his mentality, specifically his coachability. He appreciates toughness in his coaches.
“Yeah, for sure. I’ve always had coaches through AAU or high school who were always really tough on me and hard on me, at the same time letting me work through some things,” Flagg said. “That’s kind of what I need.”
Lewis noted what happened the other night when Duke trailed NC State at the half with Flagg only contributing five points on 2-of-7 shooting. Jon Scheyer who succeeded Coach K in Durham took him aside.
“Coach is always honest with me about what he thinks, and that’s one of the reasons I chose him to be my coach … he’s always honest with me and he keeps it 100,” Flagg said. “So, that’s what I need from a coach, and that’s what he does.
“He kept it honest with me. He told me I was being finesse and soft and a lot of other things. So just about responding well, and just hearing that helps me a lot.”
By the time the game ended, Duke had won by 10 and Flagg filled the stat sheet in the second half with 23 points on 6-for-10 shooting, five rebounds, two assists and a block.
Scheyer was happy with his star’s transformation.
“In that timeout I challenged him, because his game is not just about scoring but about impacting winning in every facet,” Scheyer said. “He knew it. Credit him for responding.
“I could go on all day about Cooper, how coachable he is. There’s maybe a few times throughout the year where he’s not going to like everything you say. A lot of guys will fight it, not acknowledge it. It’s a credit to him.”
Flagg’s high school coach, Kevin Boyle, has a similar reputation honed both at St. Patrick’s in Union County, N.J. and Montverde Academy not far from Orlando, Florida. His former charges including Kyrie Irving, Joel Embiid, and Scottie Barnes as well as four current Nets: former All-Stars Ben Simmons and D’Angelo Russell plus Day’Ron Sharpe and Dariq Whitehead.
And, as Lewis points out, the Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez has a similar reputation in the tough-love category.
Flagg doesn’t talk about his pro ambitions. He limited talk of the future to getting Duke yet another ring come March Madness, but Whitehead thinks he’s an NBA fit.
“Everybody in the top [echelon] in the country, they have a great skill set. But for him, playing hard with it,” Whitehead told The Post. “You’ve got a lot of top guys, their skill set gets them by. For him, he has an edge with him when he’s playing. He goes out and plays like he’s the last guy on the bench. That’s what separates him from a lot of other guys, the mentality he has in going out there and playing like he’s not the No. 1 player in the country, which he is.
“Just a certain level of hunger. He’s out there playing like he’s the last guy on the bench, like he’s getting garbage minutes. And he’s playing like that … the entire time. He’s playing as hard as he can for however long he’s in the game, which is [what] separates him from a lot of guys that’s supposed to be top of the draft.”
Worth a tank? That depends on a lot of things, the most important being the Draft Lottery on May 17, then comes his NBA orientation, no doubt enhanced by NBA veterans trying to see how tough he is under the brightest lights.
Flagg cites aggression as something he is working on as Duke makes its way through what could be historic season.
“I have to find ways to be better at combating that,” Flagg said of his need to fight physicality with aggression. “It’s not a choice anymore, I have to be aggressive. What Coach told me is that’s going to create for everyone else … I can’t get anyone else open if I’m playing soft. For me, it’s no longer a choice of if I want to be aggressive or not. I have to be aggressive at all times.”
As of Thursday morning, the Nets hopes of getting Flagg are improving. They have moved up 10 spots in the lottery after injuries took their toll. After being 15th in lottery odds after the season’s first 20 games six weeks ago, they are now in fifth and only four games out of third. That is the magic number: the top three picks have an equal chance — 14.0% — at Flagg and the top four slots in the draft — 52.1%. Of course it’s a lottery. Last year, the team with the worst record fell to fifth when the ping pong balls settled and the team with the 10th worst record got the overall No. 1.
The 2025 Draft will be filled with top prospects, some of whom haven’t made much of a dent yet in mock drafts. Duke may wind up with three players taken in the lottery, Rutgers two but as Lewis writes, if you’re going to give up your season, it had better be for a sure thing and by all accounts, that is Flagg.
- Duke star Cooper Flagg wants what Jordi Fernandez could give him with the Nets – Brian Lewis – New York Post